Thursday, April 12, 2012

Takedown / Anna Murray


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 30-35,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Anna Murray grew up as a younger child in a diverse family of nine in rural Wisconsin. She honed her writing skills as part of a classical liberal arts education at a small Midwestern college, and embarked on an unusual career path that included jobs teaching English (British American Institute, Madrid Spain), editing and training at an educational testing firm, computer programming, technical writing and training, systems analysis for a Fortune 500 corporation, and owning an electronic publishing business.”

In addition to this book, Murray has a series of Western Romances. For more, visit the author’s blog.

Description:

Web designer Jane Nelson stumbles onto a plot a desperate Bernie-Madoff-like fund manager has concocted to send the financial markets into a downward spiral and make himself a fortune.

Appraisal:

There is a temptation to lead off this review with “based on today’s headlines,” as parts of the plot of Takedown seem to be loosely based on some of the financial scandals of the last several years, most notably Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme and some of the concerns and problems with algorithmic stock trading. It made for a fast-paced thriller with the outcome uncertain and a few twists you won’t see coming. The main characters were easy to like, which in a thriller is needed so you’ll care what happens to them.
Another thing I always appreciate is when a story takes place in a specific place and  gets the details right. Geographic faux pas are one of my pet peeves. Murray got the details right, not only geographically, but the culture and attitudes of the people in the Twin Cities area, where Takedown is set.

FYI:

Mild adult situations.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four stars

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